


Four Ways to Avoid Exile

by Sarah1281



Series: Aunn Aeducan [9]
Category: Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, old fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-04
Updated: 2015-09-04
Packaged: 2018-04-18 22:43:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 13,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4723100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sarah1281/pseuds/Sarah1281
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bhelen's plan was brilliant but it wasn't perfect. If different choices had been made, if things had gone differently then Aunn might never have been exiled and Trian might even have lived. Four ways Bhelen doesn't become heir to the Aeducan throne.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Way One: Avoiding Miscommunication

Prince Trian Aeducan was understandably disgruntled to be awoken at three o'clock the morning of the big expedition to the Aeducan Thaig. The main purpose for the outing, of course, was to start off his sibling's career as commander. Knowing Aunn, her time as a commander would go either very, very well or very, very badly and he was rather hoping for the latter. Partly this was because Aunn's success as commander would move her ever closer to the Aeducan throne while her failure would surely hurt her position and partly because she had just picked his lock and was shutting the door behind her.

"What are you doing here at this Ancestor-forsaken hour?" Trian hissed.

"I had a question," Aunn replied innocently, moving closer.

"And this couldn't have been addressed earlier or waited until morning?" Trian demanded irritably. Aunn was fully dressed and her long blonde hair was done up in its usual braided double bun while he was still in his sleepwear and so at a clear disadvantage. At least he had a weapon or two at easy reach if it came to that, although he didn't see why it would given later that day she'd have a much better opportunity.

Aunn shook her head. "If I had waited until morning there may not have been time and I could not guarantee that Bhelen wouldn't find a way to hear about this and that would ruin everything."

" 'Ruin everything'?" Trian echoed. Bhelen had thoughtfully informed him that Aunn was planning treachery and today at the Thaig would be the perfect time to pull it off. At least one of his siblings understood their place. "So, what? Do you intend to kill me now? It would have worked better had you not woken me first."

Aunn drew back, surprised. "Do I intend to kill you now? Of course not! For one thing the guards are all well-trained and loyal so it would have had to have been an inside job and so that would just be careless…"

"I'm not hearing anything about how you would never even remotely think about killing me," Train noted dryly.

Aunn's smile was mocking. "I have no intentions of killing you, big brother, nor have I ever or will ever be so inclined. Do you feel safer now?"

"Oddly enough, no," Trian replied. "So if it's not blood you've come for then why are you here?"

Aunn rolled her eyes. "I told you. I needed to talk to you before the expedition and I needed to do it without Bhelen hearing about it."

"Fine. Talk," Trian ordered. He didn't trust this but he'd be a fool to send her away without attempting to see what she was planning, especially given her newly revealed fratricidal intentions.

"I'm sure by now that Bhelen has told you that I mean to kill you," Aunn began. It wasn't a question.

Trian wasn't quite sure what to make of that. Yes, Bhelen had indeed come to him with his suspicions and given his own growing paranoia over his sister's ever-rising popularity it had seemed a legitimate possibility. Aunn outright admitting it, while he wouldn't be able to prove it and their father would never believe it of his favorite child, greatly lowered her chances of succeeding…unless she intended to act now. As strange as it may have seemed, he was actually inclined to believe her when she said her intentions weren't murderous at the moment. After all, she had a point about the guards and unless she intended to slaughter a few of them as well to make it look like a very skilled assassin had been sent from outside…well, it could conceivably be done but waiting until the expedition seemed both easier and more practical. Unless, of course, she was counting on that so people wouldn't think she was involved. Still, all of this was so very complicated and it was far too early so it was best to just keep his guard up and find out where Aunn was going with this. "Do you?"

"I certainly told him that I did," Aunn declared. "And even though you've been half-suspecting that of me for weeks, the fact you don't seem surprised means that he went running straight to you, which is definitely interesting."

"Why would that be 'interesting'?" Trian asked, wishing she would just get to the point already. By the Stone, he knew he wouldn't be getting back to sleep anytime soon after this conversation but there was plenty to do before the expedition anyway.

"Are you at all curious as to why Bhelen and I were talking about me killing you?" Aunn shot back. "And yes, we were talking about it as I certainly would not be so careless as to discuss something like that where he or anyone else could happen to overhear it."

"I had assumed that you were attempting to seek his support," Trian replied. He hadn't believed she had been that careless but Bhelen was very good at remaining unnoticed. It was rather surreal that they were discussing her plot to murder him so calmly in the middle of the night after she'd broken into his room and could still decide to put her plan into action before leaving. Not, of course, that he'd make it easy for her and if he died now Bhelen would know what happened. If she silenced Bhelen as well then even their father couldn't deny what happened. Not, most likely, that it would be for lack of trying.

"And he promised it to me," Aunn confirmed. "Which isn't to say that he meant it and as it happens I'm certain that he didn't."

"If you didn't think he'd support you and you clearly suspected he would warn me, why broach the subject at all?" Trian asked reasonably. "Or did you expect his support and realized when you confided in him that you had been mistaken?"

"That's just it," Aunn said triumphantly. "I didn't bring it up. He did."

That was unexpected, to say the least. "Are you honestly trying to tell me that Bhelen outright asked you if you were planning to murder me?" Trian asked incredulously, raising an eyebrow. "That seems a little risky, don't you think? And hardly the sort of behavior one would expect out of someone who has spent years avoiding trouble."

"That would be because he didn't ask me about my intentions," Aunn clarified. "At least, not at first."

Trian waited for her to go on but clearly she was waiting for him to ask her about it. Sighing, he complied if only to move this rather unconventional meeting along. "What happened at first?"

Aunn practically beamed at him. "So glad you asked. Our little brother told me he was worried about me."

"And more to the point he was worried about your fratricidal tendencies?" Trian couldn't resist adding.

Aunn shook her head, a little amused. "As it happens, no. He was concerned about yours."

That stopped him. "Mine? I am the heir here so as long as you remember that and don't try to usurp the throne we won't have problems."

"He said that you felt threatened by my popularity and that since you had no intention of stepping aside and just letting me rule-" Aunn went on as if she hadn't heard him.

"Which I don't," Trian cut in.

"That you might take…aggressive measures," Aunn finished. "Which is why I'm here."

"Do you believe him?" Trian asked, not entirely sure that he believed her.

Aunn shrugged. "I'm not sure yet but I did know he'd go running to you, which is why I told him I was planning on striking first and it's why I'm here now."

"What made you think he would tell me what you said?" Trian challenged. "And if you knew he would, why tip your hand?"

"Because I didn't tip my hand," Aunn revealed. "He did. I asked him why he was telling me this and received an unbelievable response."

Trian snorted. "What did he say? That he loved you and wished we could all just get along?"

"That could very well be true but it wouldn't mean that we would," Aunn replied. "Reasons I could have plausibly accepted include his belief that your plot would fail and he wanted me to know he wasn't involved, his belief you would make a horrible King and I a decent Queen and he was thinking of Orzammar, or the fact that if he were going to lose one sibling he would rather it be the less condescending one."

"I am not condescending," Trian insisted.

Aunn actually laughed. "Tell yourself that if you want to, Trian, but the two times I ran into you yesterday alone you basically told Gorim he wasn't worthy to speak unprompted in your presence and made it quite clear that Bhelen and I were barely worth your notice. Gorim I can understand since as a Warrior he does have a lower status but Bhelen and I are your siblings. If you don't feel a Prince and Princess of Orzammar are worth your time, that kind of means you're condescending. That is, by the way, a large part of the reason so many people have decided they'd rather see me rule than you."

Trian didn't respond to that, although it was something to consider. While being the heir to the Aeducan throne made him superior to virtually everyone by default, it might benefit him to be more subtle about that until Aunn's support died down and the crown was safely on his head. Assuming, of course, that Aunn's upcoming power play didn't leave either of them dead or exiled. "What was the reason he gave?"

"He told me that if you killed me he was concerned that he would be next," Aunn answered.

Trian scrunched his forehead. "That seems like a perfectly legitimate reason to bring my supposed fratricidal tendencies to your attention."

"Well it would," Aunn conceded. "If it weren't for the fact that this is Bhelen claiming that you might see him as a threat. I'm not stupid and I see how you two interact. You act like you have to stop him from eating the paste; there's no way he could ever believe that you would see him as a threat."

Trian had to admit that the idea of Bhelen, of all people, being dangerous was rather ridiculous. Still, he had to ask. "What are you suggesting?"

"I think that he intends to screw me over," Aunn announced. "Or you. Probably both of us."

"Bhelen?" Trian really couldn't help the incredulity in his tone. He could more easily imagine Lord Harrowmont attempting to usurp the throne than their unremarkable little brother. "Really?"

"Really," Aunn confirmed. "You know what they say, right? That it's always the quiet ones? That's because if it were easy to believe that Bhelen would pull something like this then it would never work."

She kept dancing around the issue. "Pull something like what?" Trian pressed.

"He told me that he suspected you would try to kill me and then once I made mention of killing you first he ran and told you. He obviously thought I was amenable to the idea or else he never would have risked approaching me. Now if both of us think the other one is going to try and kill us, our interests seem to be mutually exclusive, and we've never been all that fond of each other in the first place what happens when we're virtually alone in the Aeducan Thaig later today?" Aunn might have phrased it like a question but they both knew the answer.

"One of us will probably die," Trian supplied.

"Which of us probably doesn't matter but you know I'm better in a fight," Aunn declared. "Then, when Bhelen's reasonably sure that one of us has killed the other, he tells Father something about how he thinks that the two of us – or maybe just me – are going to settle our differences violently. If he can reach us in time then he'll have one of us dead and the other exiled for kinslaying."

The annoying thing was that that did sound plausible…if the supposed mastermind was anyone but Bhelen. Honestly, he was still a child not even a year ago! "So you think Bhelen's trying to manipulate us into taking ourselves out of the way and leaving him a clear path to the throne? You seem to be forgetting, sister, that Bhelen's not the type. He's far too interested in pleasure and childish tricks than in pulling a political coup of that magnitude."

"I'll admit that his behavior in regards to that casteless girl – Rica, if I'm not mistaken – is rather unusual," Aunn said slowly, "but that's really more his allergies than anything else and should his plan succeed he'll be King and he can be as obvious about her as he wants."

"He'll outgrow that 'allergy' to tradition soon enough," Trian theorized. "His lack of appreciation really speaks more of his immaturity than any defining character trait."

"I'm not so sure," Aunn disagreed. "But that will really only come into play if we allow ourselves to be manipulated so easily. That other point you brought up, about his being more interested in childish tricks? Do you mean tricks like informing that messenger that the quickest way to get something to me was through you?"

Trian's eyes narrowed. "How do you know about that?"

Aunn shrugged. "I ran into that merchant earlier today and he told me that you threw his messenger out. Oh, and when you left Bhelen and I alone in your room after my feast which you couldn't be bothered to attend despite chastising me earlier for taking too long to get there-"

"I had more important things to do than listen to Father and the others fawn over you," Trian interrupted.

Aunn stared at him. "You were just talking to Bhelen in your room!"

"Like I said, I had more important things to do," Trian repeated wryly. "But you were saying?"

"Right. After you left and Bhelen 'warned' me about your intentions, I totally read your journal before leaving," Aunn told him shamelessly.

"…Why?!?!" Trian demanded.

"Why not?" Aunn asked rhetorically. "I am rather nosy, in case you didn't notice. How else do you think I knew who Rica was? I ran into her when I was snooping around Bhelen's room and despite the fact that she had his permission to be in there and I had no right to be, she apologized for her presence and left. I found a love letter from her – or at least I think it was her – and it was really disturbing. It mostly consisted of her talking about unworthy she was and how amazing Bhelen was for even noticing she existed."

"Well, she is casteless," Trian pointed out.

"I know, but still. I can't imagine ever even thinking I'm that far beneath anybody let alone communicating that," Aunn countered, shaking her head in bewilderment. "But I do have to ask you: if you were that impressed by Gorim's loyalty than why in the world were you so rude to him earlier?"

"Because he spoke to me when I was talking to you," Trian replied as if it were obvious. "I am the heir to the throne and even if he is your second, he's still just a warrior."

Aunn rolled her eyes. "No, not condescending at all…"

"Did you have a point about the messenger?" Trian asked tiredly. Aunn never did like to say on topic.

Aunn started. "Oh, him. Yes, Bhelen telling him to take the matter to you might have just been his questionable humor or it might have been something more. I understand why the messenger presuming to ask you to pass something along to me pissed you off; it implied that I had a higher status than you and given the way people have been talking lately about making me Queen it would be doubly offensive. Bhelen's been doing that a lot lately, I've noticed, subtly trying to convince you that I'm a threat to you."

"Are you saying you're not?" Trian asked skeptically.

Aunn snorted. "I've been a threat to you from the moment I was born no matter how I turned out."

"So you think that Bhelen's been trying to turn our…difficult relationship murderous so he can get us both out of the way and become King after Father passes?" Trian summarized. "That sounds highly unlikely, especially considering it involves Bhelen being a ruthless mastermind."

"I know you're having difficulty believing he's capable of that," Aunn acknowledged. "I've been saying he was an evil mastermind for years but no one else seems to have noticed. Are you really willing to risk it either way?"

"I suppose not," Trian conceded. "Why are you telling me this? You know that putting me on guard against Bhelen won't lessen my suspicion of you and surely if you are correct about our little brother you could find a way not to be implicated in my death. Don't you want to be Queen?"

Aunn laughed. "What I want is to run off and be a Grey Warden but Father would never allow it – and believe me, I've tried my hand at convincing him – and I am not willing to give up House Aeducan and Orzammar in order to join them like allowing myself to be exiled would require. Since I am not willing to make that sacrifice, I simply cannot sit back and watch Bhelen's plan come to fruition."

"But surely with me out of the way-" Trian started to say. He thinks her mind is already made up to try and kill him or else he wouldn't risk talking her into attempting fratricide; he just wants answers.

"He wouldn't do something so bold if he wasn't absolutely certain that he had all the variables covered," Aunn cut him off. "Everyone's pretty much agreed that unless something unthinkable happens either you or I will take the throne. If one of us dies, it will naturally fall to the other one. Surely Bhelen must have taken steps to avoid this. If he hasn't been planning this for some time and managed to bribe the right people, I would be shocked."

"So that's your interest," Trian realized. "It's not that you're opposed to killing me, you just don't want to get caught and exiled to further Bhelen's plans."

"There's no point in telling you I'm not out to kill you," Aunn said exasperatedly. "As no matter how sincere or insincere I was you'd never believe me. And yes, that's exactly it. The responsibility for keeping you alive falls to you and if you can't manage on your own that it's a pretty clear sign that you wouldn't last long as King. Still, I will not allow myself to be manipulated by my younger brother and so believe what you will about me or about him, just for the love of all that is good in this world be careful today. Don't trust Bhelen without reservation and fully expect someone, anyone, to try and take you down." With that, she turned to go.

"I can hardly believe any of this," Trian confessed. "But say you're right and you really have no intention of seeing me die today. What then?"

Aunn stopped with her hand on the doorknob. "What then?" she echoed without turning around. "If you listen to me and we both make it through the day unscathed then we go back to the way things have been and just see what happens when Father dies."

With that she was gone and Trian was left pondering what to do. The very idea of Bhelen being a threat was laughable but when it came right down to it he wasn't willing to stake his life on it. He didn't trust Aunn, had never trusted her in fact, but if she truly did believe her own story then he supposed she would react like this and decide to take care of the obstacle he represented later.

When it came right down to it, the details didn't matter. There was really only one thing he could do. One thing he did do.

He listened.


	2. Way Two: The Advantages of Arriving Early

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This relies on Bhelen having Trian killed where his body is found, which seems reasonable because otherwise there would be signs that the body had been moved and that was where he died if the Dwarf Noble suffered a serious head injury and decided that listening to Bhelen was a good idea.

Gorim Saelac sped up to keep up with Lady Aeducan – he always thought of her as Lady Aeducan when they were in public to avoid slipping up and calling her Aunn, which would be scandalous to say the least – who was currently storming down the Aeducan Thaig towards the meeting place, the Shield of Aeducan securely attached to her back. It really wasn't much to look at but, as Lady Aeducan had taken the time to note before rushing off, great advances had been made in smithing since the First Blight and the shield was mostly being reclaimed for what it represented and if it had been the best around today then standards must have really fallen and Orzammar was in more trouble than anyone thought.

The scout they had encountered earlier and Frandlin Ivo were trailing along, clearly unhappy with the pace but unwilling to comment on it just the same. Lady Aeducan could have the scout killed merely for speaking to her and House Ivo was inconsequential enough that it did not need to risk offending a serious contender for the throne.

And yes, Lady Aeducan might have been pretending not to realize that Prince Trian's abrasiveness and condescension had been slowly but surely turning people against him for years but she'd seen it. She would have to be blind not to. Once the overly forward merchant from the day before had outright declared her the people's choice for Queen she had to at least acknowledge that there were those who would see her succeed her father, even if she was oh so very shocked by it all and would never have seen it coming.

Trian, naturally, realized what a threat Lady Aeducan was to him and was constantly watching for some sign of a plot on her part. Not that she would even necessarily need to get her brother out of the way to secure the throne but if the prince were still around it would make things more difficult since he had enough support in the Assembly to cause problems for her. No, the real threat – according to Lady Aeducan – was not her elder brother but her younger one. Prince Bhelen had warned them of Trian's impending treachery and Gorim was on the lookout for that but Lady Aeducan, while conceding that Trian might very well decide to attack her today, had focused on a threat from a rather unlikely source.

Lady Aeducan had made reference to Bhelen being an evil mastermind several times over the years but he had never thought she really believed that. Ever since Bhelen had warned them yesterday, however, she had been on high alert and advised Gorim to not let his guard down either. Why Lady Aeducan was choosing to focus on her inconspicuous and helpful little brother instead of her hostile and potentially homicidal older brother was beyond him, but he supposed that she had her reasons. It would be nice if she had felt the need to share what those reasons were or what she feared might happen, but since she hadn't he would just have to trust that she knew what she was doing.

Practically the moment the two of them were out of the rest of the expedition's sight, Lady Aeducan had taken off and had barely paused to allow the scout and Ivo to join them. After they'd reached their destination and walked into a trap, she had quickly killed the two mercenaries that were directly in her way and left the others for him and their two companions to deal with while she went in search of the shield. By the time they were done and had followed her in, she was just picking up the Shield, having used three medium-sized boulders to deal with the ancient safe-guard. The minute Lady Aeducan had the shield in her possession, she had taken off towards the meeting place, seemingly unconcerned with whether they were still behind her or not.

As they continued rapidly towards the meeting place, the sounds of fighting could be heard and Lady Aeducan increased her speed yet again. Gorim wasn't sure what she expected to find but he knew that he most certainly didn't expect to turn the corner to see Trian fighting for his life against not darkspawn but common mercenaries like the ones that had attacked them earlier. One of his guards had already fallen and the other was considerably wounded and would not last long.

Lady Aeducan stopped to watch the scene for a moment. "If I just stand here and let this happen it will come back to haunt me when I least expect it, won't it?" she asked almost rhetorically.

"Probably," Gorim confirmed. Sure, this would be a great opportunity to get Trian out of the way so he wouldn't cause problems later – either for Lady Aeducan's bid for the throne or even her continued existence – and they wouldn't even have to do anything but just the same…he cast a glance backwards at the scout and Ivo. The scout could be done away with easily, but questions always arose after the death of a noble. With the death of two, one of which was the heir to the throne, the risk just wouldn't be worth it. "Witnesses and whatnot."

"Right," Lady Aeducan nodded, looking determined. "Let's go."

She took off straight towards her brother, who had just fallen. Gorim quickly followed, drawing his sword. The scout and Ivo, he noted, hung back. It couldn't be that they didn't want to fight as they were the ones who had requested to join the expedition at the last minute and had proven quite useful against the mercenaries. Something strange was going on.

There was a clash of metal as the Shield of Aeducan stopped the sword that was coming down on Trian's head. "I'm going to enjoy killing you," Lady Aeducan remarked pleasantly. It was never a good sign for her opponents when she used that tone of voice during a fight.

Not that Gorim had much time to worry about it as two of the mercenaries decided to double-team him. Neither of them were anywhere near his skill level – which was to be expected given that these thugs bore the brand of the casteless and he was a member of a prominent warrior house – but dealing with two opponents at once was never fun.

Nevertheless, the mercenaries' superior number could not match the skill of him, Lady Aeducan, and Trian (who had quickly recovered). Within ten minutes, the fight was over and he and the Aeducan siblings were victorious. Gorim looked back at the scout and Ivo, who were exchanging troubled glances. Was it just their cowardice and failure to aid the official heir to the throne that was bothering them or was it something else?

"Gorim, I got blood on the Shield of Aeducan," Lady Aeducan complained, inspecting said shield critically and frowning.

"That's what happens when you use shields in battle," Gorim replied easily. "I'm sure that under the circumstances your father will understand."

"He'd better," she grumbled. "Because this is in no way my fault."

"I don't understand," Trian spoke up.

Lady Aeducan cocked her head. "What's not to understand? If you hadn't been ambushed then I wouldn't have needed to use a family heirloom in battle and it wouldn't have gotten all bloody."

Trian scowled. "That wasn't what I meant."

"Perhaps you could elaborate on what, exactly, you meant then?" Lady Aeducan invited. "Or shall I keep guessing? That could take awhile but if you're in no particular hurry-"

"You know what I mean," Trian cut her off.

"I wouldn't dare presume," Lady Aeducan said matter-of-factly.

Trian rolled his eyes. "Fine. Why did you intercede on my behalf?"

"Because you were being attacked," Lady Aeducan replied innocently. "And you should really find some new guards because your old ones…well, they really weren't up to the task, were they?"

"I had realized that," Trian said dryly. "As my old guards are dead I will have to have them replaced regardless of their competence. Still, you know this would have been an excellent chance to get me out of the way. You could have just watched or even helped those mercenaries out."

Gorim was a little surprised that Trian was actually openly discussing his – possibly justified – paranoia that his sister would try to have him killed. Then again, Lady Aeducan saving his life had definitely thrown him for a loop and as Ivo and the scout had yet to come forward, he probably hadn't even realized that they were there.

"That would be highly impractical," Lady Aeducan informed him. "Because then I would have witnesses to my fratricide to dispose of."

"True," Trian agreed. "But as they appeared to be doing a decent job killing me on their own you could have simply left without drawing attention to your presence and nobody would have known."

Nobody but Gorim – that Trian knew of at least – but as he was Lady Aeducan's second that wouldn't have been an issue. The whole point of having seconds, besides having a buffer to the rest of society, was having someone whose fortune was so closely tied up to their own that the second wouldn't even consider betrayal no matter what they were doing. Given the ruthless nature of dwarven politics, having a good second was invaluable.

"I'm not sure what made you think otherwise, Trian, but I couldn't just let those men kill you!" Lady Aeducan exclaimed earnestly, having no doubt realized her brother's lack of awareness regarding the two hidden witnesses.

Trian's confusion wasn't abating. "But the throne-"

"Fuck the throne, Trian, you're my brother and so your life is infinitely more important to me," Lady Aeducan declared. She sounded sincere and Gorim couldn't help but wonder whether she actually meant it. Given her hesitation before stepping in, he rather doubted it although he supposed she could very well have come to that conclusion while deciding whether her brother would live or die.

Trian stared at her for a few seconds, looking for all the world as if he'd never seen her before. "I…" he started to say before the rest of the expedition came into view.

"It seems that your fear that Aunn would kill Trian is unfounded, Bhelen," King Endrin remarked, sounding pleased. Gorim rather doubted that – all things considered – the King had actually believed that his favorite child would get caught killing her brother, but the story was serious enough that it still needed to be checked out.

"I am overjoyed that I was mistaken about her intentions," Bhelen replied neutrally although if the look in his eyes were any indication then he was anything but and with good reason. If Trian were dead and Lady Aeducan had killed him, Bhelen would become the unlikely and unopposed heir to the throne.

"I was going to kill Trian?" Lady Aeducan echoed, sounding puzzled. She turned to him. "Gorim, why didn't you remind me that I wanted Trian dead before I stepped in and helped him fight off those mercenaries?"

"My apologies, my lady," Gorim replied dutifully.

"Trian was ambushed by mercenaries?" Harrowmont spoke up.

Lady Aeducan nodded. "Indeed. When I reached the Shield of Aeducan – which is right here by the way and sorry about the blood but, well, mercenaries – there were mercenaries waiting outside. They had somehow found a way in despite needing an Aeducan signet ring. As it happened, they had Trian's."

Trian started. "That's what happened to that? Casteless took it? I just bet that little plaything of Bhelen's had something to do with it."

"I think that's going a little far," Bhelen disagreed. "We don't know that."

"It disappeared from my room," Trian shot back. "She would have been the only casteless dwarf who had access."

"We can figure that out later," Endrin interceded. "Please continue, Aunn."

"There was an ancient safe-guard protecting the shield from the likes of those mercenaries so they tried to force me to tell them how to access it. It ended badly for them," Lady Aeducan continued. "I was worried that more mercenaries might be around and I did not want to risk letting them get their hands on the Shield of the Paragon Aeducan and so I hurried back to the meeting place. When I got there, the other mercenaries I'd been trying to avoid had attacked Trian. Naturally, I stepped in."

"Does that sound right?" Endrin asked his son.

"It does," Trian confirmed. "I had finished my part sooner than expected and so my guards and I came here. We'd barely been there five minutes before we were swarmed by the casteless. My guards fell quickly and then Aunn arrived and…she saved my life." He clearly didn't like admitting that much but there really wasn't any way to dispute that as the three of them had a lot better odds of surviving the encounter than Trian on his own had. No one would believe that Lady Aeducan had been trying to kill Trian because if she had then there was no reason he would still be alive when his guards were dead and she and Gorim were still able to fight.

Endrin turned his head as he noticed movement out of the corner of his eye. "You two," he called out. "Did you see anything?"

The scout and Ivo reluctantly stepped forward.

"I could not see anything," the scout said slowly, shooting a quick, panicked glance at Bhelen.

"Nor could I," Ivo confirmed.

"Why didn't you help us?" Lady Aeducan demanded. "Yes, the three of us managed to defeat the mercenaries but with your aid it would have been accomplished much more easily."

"We were making sure that no one had a chance to ambush you from behind," Ivo averred.

"Your dedication is remarkable if you don't even stop preventing us from getting flanked while we're involved in a fight," Lady Aeducan noted dryly.

"I think we can all agree that while these two acted irresponsibly, bad judgment is not a crime," Bhelen stated.

"That is true," Endrin agreed reluctantly. "Although if the fight had not gone so well their negligence would most certainly be one. Nonetheless, I'm sure that the scout's commander – which would be Aunn – and Lord Ivo can deal with this."

Lady Aeducan looked delighted. "I'm sure I can find an appropriate response to such carelessness."

"Now, if everyone has arrived then we should return to Orzammar," Endrin announced.

As everyone turned to return to the city, both Aeducan princes looking unsettled although assuredly for different reasons, Gorim waited until he and Lady Aeducan were far enough off to the side of the group before quietly asking, "Is there any point in asking what just happened?"

"Trian and I just received a stay of execution," Lady Aeducan replied quietly.

"Well, Trian I can certainly understand since you saved him but you? And what was going on with Bhelen?" Gorim pressed.

"Bhelen tipped his hand yesterday; he wanted me to kill Trian. If I did and he knew I was going to, then he would be free to tattle on me later," Lady Aeducan confided.

"You told him you were going to wait and see what Trian did," Gorim reminded her.

"And thus the mercenaries. If I intended to kill Trian then clueing Trian in would result in one of us dying and the other being charged with and punished for kinslaying. If I had no plans to kill Trian then there was a chance that I would end up dead but I could manage to incapacitate him or talk him down," Lady Aeducan explained. "That's why I was in such a hurry; I didn't want to be framed. Now, there's a good chance that Bhelen will try to take one or both of us out of the way in the future, but the opportunity will never be as good. For one thing, we might not both be going off practically by ourselves into the Deep Roads again and my saving Trian when Bhelen convinced him I'd kill him should make things interesting."

That made sense. Kind of. "When did Bhelen convince Trian that you were going to kill him?" Gorim asked.

Lady Aeducan shrugged. "Oh, who knows? They've been spending far too much time together lately."

"That all sounds reasonable," Gorim told her. "Except…Bhelen? Why focus on him? Trian's the one who thinks you'll replace him."

"I might," Lady Aeducan pointed out. "And you can't seriously tell me you've never noticed that Bhelen's an evil mastermind. I mean, for one thing, he's nice."

"Most people would assume that 'nice' equated to 'not an evil mastermind'," Gorim retorted.

Lady Aeducan laughed. "True enough, but then my brother is a dwarven politician. And alive! Why does no one but me ever notice these things?"


	3. Way Three: Procrastination Has Its Perks

Princess Aunn Aeducan knew only three things for certain. One, Trian really wanted her out of the way and could very well resort to extreme measures. Two, if Bhelen were really half as dim-witted or helpful as he appeared to be then she would have difficulty believing he was even still alive, let alone so adept at staying out of trouble. Three, this expedition to the Aeducan Thaig with only Gorim at her side was an excellent place to have an 'accident.'

Trian and Bhelen hadn't always been the wicked older brother and the well-meaning but ultimately foolish younger brothers, of course. When she was younger she'd used to follow Trian around everywhere but as they'd gotten older and they'd started to understand the threat that she represented – especially given her inexplicable ability to make people love her – thing had become…difficult, to say the least.

And then there was Bhelen. He'd started off promisingly enough as a child but around the time he turned eleven he just sort of stopped. He didn't suddenly act the fool because Ancestors knew that would have attracted all sorts of attention that he would have presumably been trying to avoid. Rather, he just slowed his progress considerably until he had firmly cemented his status as the untalented one. Bhelen's seeming lack of ambition or any sort of real ability made it easy for Trian to trust him but Aunn had never been that sure.

That was what made the current situation so vexing. Their father was growing old and everyone knew the time for the Assembly to decide upon their next ruler was drawing near at hand. While Aunn herself would rather run off and join the Grey Wardens than become Queen and remain in Orzammar forever, her father was quite firmly against the idea and so she may as well try for the throne. If she didn't get it she could always go with her backup plan: running off and joining the Grey Wardens. The human Warden she spoke to, Duncan, was quite convinced a Blight was coming and no one could blame her for wanting to protect Orzammar from that, right?

Trian had been the heir to the throne since the day he was born and he wanted to be King so badly it was hard for her to really comprehend. His hostility was certainly not appreciated but it was understood and fairly predictable. While he was a threat, he was one that she expected. Bhelen, on the other hand, was unpredictable. He'd been spending nearly every waking moment with Trian for months now and then all of a sudden he decides to switch sides? And because Trian might view him as a threat? She didn't know quite what to make of that, to be honest, but she'd be a fool to just trust it. There was only one person that she trusted completely and that was Gorim. It was always easy to trust someone whose fortune depended on yours, after all.

The fact that he was in love with her definitely helped her believe that he, unlike practically everyone else she knew, wouldn't turn on her if the situation called for it. The reason she loved him was simple: she could trust him. It was a little sad that such a basic concept was so rare in her world, but there it was. What she didn't quite understand, though, was why he allowed himself to fall for her. While Aunn was quite convinced of her own awesomeness and, more specifically, knew she was very pretty, more intelligent than most of the people she knew, could make nearly anyone love her given sufficient time and motivation, and hadn't been defeated in a fight since she was sixteen, she was also a Princess while he was a warrior and so they were doomed before they even started. Gorim was young, certainly, but not naïve. Were they caught, it wouldn't be her that paid the price for their dalliance.

As Bhelen was quite emphatically not Gorim, Aunn would be taking anything that he said with a grain of salt. Trian planned to attack her in the Thaig today? That was quite possible but why warn her? Trian might see Bhelen himself as a threat and he'd rather stick with the less-fratricidal sibling? Please, the only threat Trian was capable of seeing these days was her. One thing she did realize was that Bhelen was trying to talk her into making a preemptive strike. Aunn, Ancestors help her, would honestly prefer not to become a Kinslayer. Kinslaying was one of the most heinous of crimes in Orzammar and even if she could get away with it, it wouldn't sit right with her.

If Trian attacked her then she would be ready and she would do what she had to, make no mistake, but she wouldn't be the instigator. That may be a mistake, but by waiting and seeing her chances of being Bhelen's lackey went down significantly. And Bhelen was planning something. If he wasn't and was content to let Trian and Aunn fight over the throne, he never would have involved himself by accusing Trian of violent intentions yesterday. Since she had made it clear that a preemptive strike was no in the cards, she wasn't quite sure how he would react. Only a fool would just assume that she would say yes and have no plan in case should she refuse to act and so she had to watch out for whatever he was up to, as well.

The safest thing to do, given what a perfect place the Thaig was for an ambush and everyone would be going off by themselves, would be to simply not go on the expedition. Sadly, since the whole point of the expedition was to start off her military career, that was hardly an option. Her father had sent her off to find the legendary Shield of Aeducan, lost to the ages but wielded by the founder of her house himself. There were a lot of reasons that one became a Paragon. Dwarves had become Paragons for being especially good servants (posthumously, of course, and preferably if they had no family), for discovering that nugs were edible, and for being especially good with rhymes. Not her house.

Paragon Aeducan had made his mark in a rather more dramatic and awe-inspiring way. He had saved Orzammar from the darkspawn. The Shaper taught that the Thaigs of the ancient dwarven empire were falling left and right and the whole city was in a panic. Everyone had retreated to Orzammar – despite its proximity to the surface – as it was the easiest city to defend but the nobles were squabbling, as they were apt to do, about where they should send their troops. No one was willing to let their Thaig fall to save another's and it looked like the games the nobles played would doom everyone and the surface dwarves would be the only legacy the empire left behind. The then-warrior Aeducan had no patience for politics and wrote the Assembly off. He appealed directly to the lower castes to aid in Orzammar's defense and, against all odds, he did it. He saved the city and he was quite unashamedly guilty of treason. The Assembly could either send him to the surface or make him a Paragon. Given the circumstances, they chose the former.

Aunn was, understandably, exceedingly proud of her heritage and determined to find that particular heirloom, even if it hadn't been her assigned task for the expedition. Shortly after she and Gorim had set off, they ran into a scout who offered to join up with them and, since the Deep Roads really were very dangerous – even this close to Orzammar itself – Aunn had agreed. A little while after that they had run into the fighter she had defeated in the finals of her Proving the day before, one of the Ivos, she thought. He didn't really have an explanation for why he was just wandering around the Thaig but he had also joined them. For some reason their presence made her nervous. Was it overly paranoid to suspect that if something were to happen they could serve as 'unbiased witnesses'? And not in her favor, either.

While Gorim was only worried about Trian, she had been so paranoid about practically everything since she had left Bhelen in Trian's room the day before and was actually almost relieved to see the mercenaries stationed outside of the building she was supposed to find the Shield in. They had somehow managed to get their hand on an Aeducan signet ring – Trian's, she had discovered, when she'd taken it from a casteless corpse – but they proved incapable of solving a simple logic puzzle. Aunn herself had quickly deduced that the oddly-colored stones were the key and had her followers stand on them to reveal the Shield. Apparently such obvious brainteasers were more than enough to keep most people out, difficult though that was to believe.

As her objective was complete, Aunn knew that what she should do was promptly return to the meeting place and wait for the rest of the expedition. Just the same, she didn't know how those casteless mercenaries had gotten Trian's ring, why they attacked her, if the scout and Ivo had ulterior motives to accompanying her, or if there were more surprises on her way back. What she did know, aside from the three facts she'd been dwelling on all day, was that where she was seemed safe enough and if she stayed with her back to the building no one could sneak up on her.

Aunn eyed one of the fallen mercenaries speculatively. "Gorim, is this one still alive?"

Gorim bent down to check for a pulse. "Indeed, my lady. Would you like to rectify that or wake him for questioning?"

"Wake him," Aunn ordered.

Gorim splashed some water onto the unconscious man's face and within moments the casteless dwarf's eyes started fluttering.

"What's going on?" the man asked blearily, sitting up. They had taken his weapon and had him outnumbered so that was safe enough.

"That was what I was just about to ask," Aunn replied. "Do you know who I am?"

"Who doesn't know who the Princess is?" the man shot back.

Aunn shrugged. "Fair enough. Why did you attack me?"

The man didn't answer.

"Alright, let's start with an easier question," Aunn decided. "You're casteless, right?"

"What was your first clue?" the man sneered. "The brand on my face?"

He clearly expected that he would be killed – and with good reason – and had decided not to beg for his life. Aunn could respect that, even if it was irritating. She nodded. "That was what first gave me the idea, yes. Who are you?"

"Bazim," Bazim replied.

"I haven't met too many casteless," Aunn mused. "What's it like to have no caste?"

"Everyone insists that we shouldn't have been born and since we were we ought to have been killed as babies as we're thieving, begging abominations that have no Ancestors," Bazim replied. "How do you think?"

"Well, if I knew I wouldn't have asked," Aunn sniffed. "And Dust Town?"

"I have never seen such a wretched hive of scum and villainy," Bazim declared. "Although, admittedly, I haven't been many places. Still, I think I might actually prefer to live in the Deep Roads. I mean, sure, there's a minor darkspawn infestation but it's really quite nice."

"The Deep Roads seem nice?" Aunn sounded horrified. "No wonder Father won't let me go down there…Your friend had my brother's signet ring, do you know where he got it?"

"Probably from him," Bazim replied.

"Were you hired to attack me?" Aunn pressed. "I refuse to believe Trian just misplaced the ring and it ended up with the carta, particularly as your leader knew about the Shield of Aeducan and where it was located when even we only discovered the location recently."

"If you have all the answers then why ask me?" Bazim challenged.

"Because I don't have all the answers and I'm going to get the ones I don't have from you one way or another," Aunn warned. "Did Trian hire you or did Bhelen? Or was it someone else entirely? And what were you supposed to do besides attack me?"

"It's not my job to know these things," Bazim insisted. "If you wanted to know details you shouldn't have killed our leader."

"I think you know more than you're saying," Aunn said flatly. "But if you don't want to tell me now, that's fine. I'll find my answers sooner or later."

Bazim frowned. "What do you mean?"

Before Aunn could answer, the rest of the expedition came into view.

"Aunn," her father called out, looking concerned. "Are you alright?"

"Of course," Aunn replied, a little confused. "I know I took a little longer than I was supposed to recovering the Shield but I was ambushed by some mercenaries." She gestured towards Bazim. "I haven't gotten much out of the survivor, but that will change soon enough. Is something wrong?"

"Trian…" her father began.

"Did something happen to Trian?" she asked, letting a trace of alarm seep into her voice. They had better not blame her for whatever had happened; she had barely moved since she arrived.

"Trian is dead," her father told her.

"What happened?" Aunn demanded, beginning to get a bad feeling about this. Still, it was paramount that she stayed calm until she knew that she was safe. "Was it a darkspawn?"

"We do not know," Harrowmont answered her. "When we arrived at the designated meeting place he and his guards were already slain and there was no sign of the perpetrator. Bhelen was concerned that you might have done it."

"Me?" Aunn repeated, sounding stunned. "But…I haven't even had time to leave yet. How could I have-? No," she shook her head. "He's not dead. He can't be."

"I am sorry, Aunn," her father said gently. "But I was his body myself."

Aunn closed her eyes.

"You're honestly claiming that you had nothing to do with this?" Bhelen demanded.

Her eyes flew open. "Of course I didn't! Why would you think I had anything to do with this?"

"You and Trian had been getting more hostile towards each other by the day," Bhelen pointed out. "You're the natural suspect."

"I…we didn't always get along, and I deeply regret that now that I'll never have a chance to change that," Aunn admitted. "But I would never want Trian dead. He's my brother."

"And the throne?" Bhelen challenged.

Aunn blinked at him uncomprehendingly. "The throne? Bhelen, I'm not sure if you somehow missed this but our brother is dead and you're concerned about succession? Obviously they'll be a change now that Trian's dead, but now is really not the time to worry about that!"

"It is if that's why Trian's dead," Bhelen disagreed. "Now that he's dead, that makes you the heir, doesn't it?"

"Probably," Aunn said tiredly. So that was Bhelen's plan, or at least part of it. Have Trian killed and then blame her. It probably would have worked better had she actually returned to the meeting place like she'd been supposed to, but that didn't mean that she was out of the Deep Roads yet. And no wonder he wanted her to kill Trian herself: it was a lot easier to tattle on someone than it was to frame them for fratricide. "But that's hardly my fault and Father can feel free to appoint anyone he likes as his new heir, preferably after Train's body has cooled."

"I was wrong, you know," Bhelen admitted quietly.

"About what?" Aunn asked suspiciously. Chances are she didn't want to hear this.

"Yesterday, when I warned you that I thought Trian might try to attack you. I should have been warning him about you," Bhelen continued, sounding faintly sick.

"Do you remember after that, as well?" Aunn countered. "When I thanked you for looking out for me and said that if Trian attacked me I would defend myself but take no other action than that? If Trian did attack me and I had to defend myself, I wouldn't have run away and I certainly wouldn't have denied it. But, like you said, you were wrong about that and I haven't even seen him since he left us yesterday afternoon."

"A likely story," Bhelen sneered.

"That's enough, Bhelen," her father said firmly. "You're upsetting your sister and there is no reason to think that Aunn was in any way involved with this tragedy."

"I apologize, Father," Bhelen said dutifully.

"Perhaps one of Aunn's companions could confirm that Aunn has remained here and lay the matter to rest?" Harrowmont suggested.

"An excellent suggestion," her father agreed.

"We came straight here, engaged the casteless mercenaries who tried to ambush us, found the Shield of Aeducan, and were questioning the only survivor when you showed up," Gorim spoke up immediately.

The scout didn't reply. Aunn figured that was because he either would agree with her story and there would be no point in repeating what happened or because he wanted to disagree but as he was only a warrior caste – and not very high up by the looks of it – he knew that his word would never be enough to condemn her. And she was still probably being paranoid but given that the brother who was supposed to have attacked her was dead and the brother who had 'warned her' was trying to make this her fault, she felt entitled.

Ivo shot an uncertain look at Bhelen before saying slowly, "I only joined the expedition halfway here. Once I encountered Lady Aeducan we came straight here and haven't left, though I cannot speak of what happened before I arrived."

So Ivo, at least, was being bribed. That made his whole 'may you find honor today and tomorrow' rather mean-spirited, didn't it? Since she was supposed to have been framed a little more adeptly than this? Thank the Ancestors she'd decided to take her time. And she would have to remember to get him for that.

"That is enough to convince me that Aunn could not have been involved," her father declared. "As the only opportunity she would have had to commit the crime was before Trian could have possibly finished his task and returned to the meeting place. Though that still leaves the question of what happened to Trian?"

Aunn thought she knew exactly what happened to Trian but that looking too closely at it was sure to cause a scandal. "Maybe the mercenaries who attacked me also went after him," she suggested. "You could question Bazim here; he'd probably know what happened."

"That sounds like a good starting place," her father agreed. "And now, let us return to Orzammar and tell them the news."

Aunn let out a sigh of relief as they started back towards the city. "Do you remember when I said Bhelen was an evil mastermind?" she whispered to Gorim as they moved off to the side. "This is kind of what I meant."

Gorim looked intrigued. "You think he had Trian killed? That would make sense given that he was serving as your father's second and thus was beyond suspicion."

"And he tried to frame me," Aunn added. "The scout and Ivo were clearly bribed and I don't even want to know what else he had planned."

"But you managed to avoid his trap, my lady," Gorim reminded her. "And this means that you're almost guaranteed to succeed your father."

"Probably," Aunn agreed. "If Bhelen doesn't kill me in my sleep or something. We need to watch out for him until the new ruler is crowned after Father dies."

Gorim nodded. "Agreed."

It was going to be a LONG however-long-her-father-had-left, wasn't it?


	4. Way Four: Making Use of the Murder-Knife

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to thank Gilsa for finding this scene in the toolset because otherwise I might actually have to play it and the idea of actually falling for Bhelen's 'I'm worried about you so go kill Trian' shtick…yeah, that's not happening.

Frandlin Ivo was nearly positive that this was a very bad idea. Getting involved in succession disputes never ended well, especially for someone like him who just barely qualified as noble. People like him were always the ones to die when someone couldn't get to who he was working for. Still, Prince Bhelen had threatened to crush him if he didn't help and promised to elevate his entire House if he did so Ivo would just have to hope that Prince Trian and Princess Aunn really would obligingly try to kill each other so that he could slander whoever was left standing.

It had started out easily enough: there was a big expedition and Trian and Aunn were heading off away from the watchful eyes of their father and the other Lords accompanying the expedition. He had been briefed about Aunn's mission and the location of the Shield in advance and so had been waiting for her along the way. Once she had shown up, he had volunteered to aid her in her quest and that was that. She might have looked a little suspicious, but she had still acquiesced to his request and that was good enough for him.

The mercenaries blocking her way to the Shield weren't enough to slow her down and as he watched her fight he felt more than a little relieved no one expected him to oppose her outside of strictly-regulated Proving – she had won with very little effort anyway – and that the Aeducan signet ring she found on the mercenaries was enough to shift her focus onto how that had come to be.

His job was simple: witness Aunn and Trian's fight and testify that the winner ambushed the loser. If it seemed like a fight would be avoided – unlikely but possible – force the issue without raising undue suspicion.

Currently they – Aunn, her second Gorim, a scout whose name he did not know but who he thought might also be in Bhelen's employ, and himself – had just returned to their meeting place to find Trian and his men waiting for them.

"Atrast vala, sister," Trian greeted her coldly. He didn't acknowledge anyone else, even his fellow noble, but that was hardly surprising. Trian had never had time for those he deemed beneath him and he had been rather fixated on his sister and her popularity as of late.

Aunn groaned, appearing not to notice the hostility. She almost certainly had but she preferred to be infuriatingly glib in conversation. "Again with the 'sister.' Why do you and Bhelen refuse to use my name? Do you hate it or something? But never mind, I'm sure you'll pretend not to have any idea what I'm talking about. Hello, Trian."

"I have no idea what you mean, Aunn," Trian denied, pointedly making use of his sister's name.

"I would like to submit that you only said that because I pointed out that you never do so my point still stands," Aunn insisted.

"I may be here, but I am not unaware or outnumbered," Trian said loudly, ignoring her.

Aunn blinked. "Okay…so you feel the need to let me know that you're paying attention to your surroundings and have avoided being corned by a large group of darkspawn? Thanks for the heads-up but I am also paying attention to my surroundings and have managed to come to that conclusion all by myself."

"Well, that is true," Trian conceded, "but that wasn't what I meant."

"Where are the others?" Aunn asked, looking around.

"They will arrive soon enough," Trian answered ominously. "I wanted to see you first-"

There weren't many people who would be willing to interrupt the Crown Prince of Orzammar. Aunn Aeducan, unsurprisingly, was one of them. "Really?" she asked brightly. "You came early just to see me? Are you feeling alright, big brother? Normally you leave the room within minutes of me showing up whenever you think you can get away with it…which pretty much means whenever Father isn't there."

"This is a special occasion, isn't it?" Trian allowed, not even bother to argue the truth of her statement. "I wanted to look into your treacherous eyes and tell you I know what you have planned."

Aunn was visibly surprised. "You do? Are you certain? If so, you must see that we need to talk. Alone."

"Anything you have to say can be said here, in front of our men," Trian disagreed.

Aunn snorted. "I highly doubt that. For one thing, it's a rather sensitive subject. For another, well, you'll probably yell at me later for not showing proper decorum in discussing this in front of other people."

"If that is my biggest concern when all of this is over, sister, I could hardly complain," Trian said frankly. Aunn was right; he never did actually address her by name, did he?

"See, you did it again!" Aunn exclaimed. "I bet you do it on purpose, too…And I know you; you will absolutely lecture me on it later."

"If you have something to say, then just say it," Trian commanded.

"Alright," Aunn said slowly, her tone clearly warning her brother that if he didn't like what she had to say she had offered to speak to him in private. "Where's your signet ring, Trian?"

"My signet ring?" Trian repeated, a little thrown. Clearly he hadn't expected that to be brought up first or maybe even at all. "I…didn't wear it today. I didn't want risk losing it in battle."

"So it's in your room then?" Aunn asked him, the very picture of innocence. "You didn't give it to mercenaries so they could steal our most important family heirloom?" That was another thing to know about the princess: she had a minor obsession with her heritage and everyone knew she would like nothing more than to run off and join the Grey Wardens. Ivo wasn't entirely sure why that made people want her to be their next Queen even more, but there you had it.

"Of course not!" Trian declared passionately, though probably falsely. If Aunn had managed to lose the shield, it would have been a bad way to begin her career as commander. Not that she'd have much of a career if Bhelen's plan succeeded. "How dare you accuse me of your own treachery!"

"You mean I gave mercenaries your signet ring so they could steal the shield that I'm supposed to recover and cause me to fail at my first mission as commander?" Aunn asked, sounding shocked. "That's almost too diabolical for words! In fact, it's so brilliant that I can't even see how it would benefit me in the slightest, which means that no one would ever suspect! Well, except you, I guess, but you always suspect me of everything anyway so that doesn't really count."

"That's not what I meant and you know it," Trian growled.

"Do I?" Aunn asked rhetorically, raising an eyebrow. "You know, this conversation would be a lot less fraught with misunderstandings if you could just spell it out for me. I'm certain you remember that one incident where I thought we were talking about cheese and you thought I was talking about your girlfriend. That didn't go well, did it? And surely you have no problem clarifying seeing as how you insisted that anything we needed to talk about could be said right here."

"You think I fear to name your treachery?" Trian sneered. Ivo had never really had an opportunity to observe the elder two Aeducan siblings interact but clearly Trian's strategy for dealing with Aunn's numerous tangents was to just ignore them whenever possible and stubbornly stick to the matter at hand, which was proving surprisingly effective. "You have plotted to murder me so you could take my place as heir!" he accused.

Aunn cocked her head. "I did?" she asked blankly. "You think I would have been informed of this at some point. Gorim, why wasn't I informed?"

"Your plotting was apparently so great a secret that you never informed me, my lady," Gorim replied. "My apologies for not realizing anyway."

There was something rather odd about the way that Aunn and her second interacted but for the life of him Ivo couldn't put his finger on it. Perhaps it was just that Gorim obliged her refusal to have a serious conversation if it could be at all avoided?

"Don't play coy," Trian snapped. "You convinced Bhelen to help take me and my men by surprise."

"Evidently not or you wouldn't have heard of it," Aunn said dryly. "And Bhelen would be here, for that matter."

"Do you deny it?" Trian demanded, sounding more uncertain about whether she would profess innocence than in whether she actually was.

Aunn hesitated and Ivo wondered if she was planning something after all. "Well, not 'deny' exactly. I mean, that just makes it sound like I'm actually guilty but just pretending otherwise?"

"Aren't you?" Trian challenged. "But we're not here to discuss semantics. Is it true?"

"It's not true," Aunn swore, her eyes blazing. There weren't many people who would doubt the princess when her voice was full of such conviction.

Trian Aeducan, naturally, was one of them. "Just stop," he said, a little bitterly. "You have gone too far this time. Your grandstanding at the Provings, I could overlook. You showing off at the expense of elderly Lord Dace, I could overlook. That the nobles love you when you have accomplished nothing…this I have learned to forgive." And chances were it had taken him years as that had long since been the biggest threat to Trian succeeding his father, especially as Bhelen had yet to tip his hand. "I know I will never be loved in Orzammar, but I will rule. Nothing, not even treacherous kin, will stop me from claiming my birthright." Of course, he was very likely wrong about that and very much mistaken about which kin he had to fear.

Aunn was quiet for a long moment. "Are you sure you want to have this conversation right now?" Ivo didn't think he'd ever heard her sound that serious but, then again, his contact with before yesterday was extremely limited.

"If we don't have it now, then we never will," Trian's response was equally serious.

"I suppose that's true," Aunn said with a wry smile. Were they actually going to start opening discussing what was going on behind the scenes? That would be something to see. "Fine. Let's start with my winning the Provings yesterday. It was hardly 'grandstanding' as that would be imply that my actions were taking attention off of something more important. I didn't do that. It was my Proving held in my honor."

"Entering your own Proving is hardly proper," Trian was quick to point out.

Aunn rolled her eyes. "You're just annoyed because there weren't any Provings held when you got your first commission and yes, before you ask, I did find that out from reading your journal. If you didn't want me to do that you never should have left me unsupervised in your room and you can yell at me about 'invading your privacy' or whatever later when you're not accusing me of the slightly more serious charge of plotting fratricide."

"Agreed," Trian said reluctantly. "But we will be talking about this later."

Aunn sighed. "If it makes you feel any better, the Proving was mostly organized because Lord Harrowmont realized that I have no interest in noble boys and was hoping that by seeing them fight it might change my mind. You were already involved with Jaylia Helmi when you first got a commission and a lot of the female fighters are Silent Sisters anyway."

"So you entered your own Proving and caused a minor scandal in order to avoid a few cursory match-making attempts?" Trian asked incredulously.

"Don't get me wrong; if anyone had managed to beat me I would have been very interested," Aunn assured him. "But there really wasn't much hope of that happening. You were the last person to defeat me and Ancestors know that was seven years ago. But to answer your original question, yes, that was why I entered. Well, that and my love of minor scandals."

Trian covered his eyes with his hand. "By the stone, you're almost as bad as Bhelen…"

"I'm going to assume you mean that I was being immature and not that I have no soul," Aunn sniffed, sounding a bit affronted.

Trian looked confused. "You don't think Bhelen has a soul?"

"I'll get to that," Aunn promised. "You may not be aware of this but that Proving I fought against Lord Dace's son? It was because he cornered me at my feast yesterday to entreat me to support his efforts at restoring the surface castes to their Houses. He claimed that his wife wanted her cousin to be able to return to Orzammar but what he was actually after was getting reimbursed for a bad deal by the noble Houses – including our own – that would have been forced to pay off the debt our distant relatives on the surface incurred. Not only would our House have suffered greatly if I had fallen for Lord Dace's schemes but it would have set a bad precedent and so unless I wanted people to walk all over me then I had to react strongly at the start. It's not like he was some innocent victim in my epic quest to show off and make more people love me."

"You killed his only son. That's a bit extreme since he didn't even succeed in fooling you," Trian declared.

"I regret nothing," Aunn claimed.

Trian just shook his head. "You never do."

"I never have to. As for the nobles…it's hardly my fault that people love me," Aunn said, sounding as if she'd had this argument a hundred times before. "Yes, I try to listen to other people, help out when I can, and generally refrain from acting like I'm above everyone else but it's not like I'm a Paragon. I do plenty of things that should earn me some animosity and yet it never seems to. Sure, Lord Dace is upset about his son but he didn't seem to take it as personally as he could have and the rest of his House isn't holding it against me, either. I doubt you could ever have my inexplicable ability to make people love me but, if nothing else, you could always try to be less condescending."

"I am not condescending," Trian insisted. "And I don't need to be taking advice on how to behave from someone who would turn to fratricide so easily. You and your companions will throw down your weapons, confess your treason, and be tried in front of the Assembly." He sounded so certain that that was how it was going to play out, but Ivo knew that it wouldn't.

Sure enough, Aunn's eyes flashed. "I will confess to nothing as I have don't nothing! Still, if it will ease your paranoia and let us settle this in a rational manner then I will…" She could her eyes, looking as if she were in physical pain. "Surrender."

"Are you sure you wish to do this, my lady?" Gorim asked respectfully.

Aunn snorted. "Not nearly but Trian seems to have gotten it into his head that I'm out to kill him."

The scout tipped his hand as Bhelen's agent when he got a crazed look in his eyes and shouted, "Never! A warrior does not surrender meekly! Attack!"

Ivo tensed, preparing for the fight to start as Trian started to say, "Kill the tra-"

He stopped mid-word as the scout fell over, a dagger sticking out of his head.

"The murder-knife strikes again," Aunn announced. This happened often?

"It's quite a menace," Gorim agreed. This…wasn't the way it was supposed to go. Why would a princess who was trying to avoid getting into a lethal fight with her older brother not listen to a scout no one cared enough about to learn his name when he decided to attack? Or maybe he just answered his own question…

Ivo was caught of guard as Aunn suddenly turned and glared at him. "If you so much as say a single word, you're next," she warned.

Ivo quickly nodded to show that he understood. Surely Bhelen couldn't blame him for Aunn being willing to kill to stop a murder, could he?

"Did you just kill your own man?" Trian asked in disbelief. "That will hardly increase your chances of killing me."

"No," Aunn said shortly.

"But I just saw you throw a dagger at his head," Trian protested.

"Yes, I did do that," Aunn acknowledged.

"And yet you just said that-" Trian began.

"He's not 'my' man," Aunn interrupted again. "We just ran into him and he decided to follow me around. Besides, he was trying to provoke a fight and we had just agreed to resolve this peacefully." Well, peacefully if you didn't count the murder-knife.

"You agreed not to fight right now, yes," Trian disagreed. "But you refuse to admit to your treason!"

"What treason?" Aunn demanded. "If I say that I plotted your death then the Assembly will cast me out and I while I know that people keep saying I should become Queen I am not willing to get exiled so you feel more secure as the heir!"

"That's not what this is about!" Trian shot back. "This is about you seeking to kill me!"

"And where did you get that idea?" Aunn challenged. "From Bhelen?"

"As it happens, yes," Trian confirmed. "He was quite concerned about your murderous intentions."

"Funny," Aunn smiled humorlessly. "He told me the same thing about you."

"Why would I kill you?" Trian inquired. "I'm already the heir."

"Because you're not sure that will be enough?" Aunn suggested. "And I believe that what I actually said wasn't 'I'm going to kill Trian tomorrow' but rather 'if Trian tries something I'll be ready.' Lo and behold, you're the one who confronted me."

"What are you saying?" Trian asked skeptically. "That Bhelen warned us both that he feared we were plotting against each other?"

"No, I think he set us up for a confrontation and bribed the scout to force a fight if it looked like this could be settled peacefully," Aunn corrected. "He may have also bribed Ivo – which is why he's not allowed to talk – but I'm not sure. Just happening to find them wandering around the Thaig seeking an expedition to join is highly suspicious, you know." And…wow she got it in one. At least she wasn't certain of his involvement so he'd only have to worry about a reprisal from Bhelen for failing (because it was pretty clear by now that the plan was a failure).

"Bhelen," Trian repeated as if that were enough of a counterargument. For all that Bhelen apparently spent all his time with Trian, it was clear that their sister knew him far better.

"Why are you so eager to believe that I'm plotting all manner of nefarious deeds but Bhelen's not planning anything?" Aunn asked, annoyed. "He's in line for the throne, too, if you'll recall."

"Because I am all that is standing between you and the throne and Bhelen is, well, BHELEN," Trian responded promptly.

"And if one of us kills the other and is arrested and exiled for kinslaying, he'll be the heir," Aunn pointed out logically.

"Don't be absurd," Train dismissed her claims.

"I'm not. Don't be narrow-minded," Aunn countered. "Especially when your refusal to recognize a credible threat could come back to haunt me."

"You have no proof to substantiate your claims," Trian retorted.

"Neither did Bhelen but you had no problem believing him," Aunn complained. She reached into her pocket just as the rest of the expedition came into view. "Here's your signet ring, by the way. I found it on a mercenary who tried to stop me from recovering the shield. Fortunately, they all seemed to lack basic problem-solving skills so I was able to stop them even though they got there first."

"Aunn, Trian, what's going on?" King Endrin asked, no doubt wondering about the dead body and the argument in progress.

"Trian decided that I'm out to kill him and so we decided to let you and, if necessary, the Assembly handle it," Aunn answered immediately.

Endrin looked alarmed at that. "Trian?"

"I have reason to believe that my sister is plotting something," Trian began.

"So nice of you to let both of us know that the other was planning to kill us, Bhelen," Aunn said sweetly. "It was such a help in attempting to resolve this peacefully."

"I have nothing to do with this," Bhelen, who had been glaring accusingly at Ivo, insisted, holding up his hands placatingly. "I just didn't want to see a tragedy befall our family."

"You're a regular Paragon," Aunn said dryly.

"Trian, do you have any reason to believe this other than Bhelen's word?" Endrin asked gravely. "Conspiracy to commit fratricide is a serious crime."

"Well, no," Trian admitted. "But all I planned to do was confront her, force her to confess, and then turn her over to the Assembly."

"And I have no intentions of confessing to anything, particularly something like this that I'm not actually guilty of," Aunn declared.

"What reason did you have to believe that Aunn would try to kill Trian?" Endrin asked his youngest son.

"I told her that I was concerned that Trian was taking her new position badly and she said not to worry because she was planning on killing him," Bhelen replied.

"That's not how it happened!" Aunn objected. "You said you were worried that Trian might attack me and I said not to worry because if he did then I would be able to take care of myself. Are you honestly telling me that all of this is the result of a miscommunication?" That was a far cry from what she was saying before her father had arrived but accusing Bhelen of being involved when there was even less proof would be a pointless endeavor and just make this drag on.

Endrin sighed. "Is it too much to ask that you don't try to kill each other until after you have all the facts? Or preferable not at all?"

"Of course it isn't," Aunn told him.

"What about Aunn's plan?" Trian demanded.

"I still have nothing to do with this," Bhelen lied.

"Trian, we have no reason to think that your sister was planning anything," Endrin answered. "If you're really that concerned then just keep a closer eye on her."

"Fun…" Aunn muttered.

As Endrin then proceeded to ask about the results of the various tasks the expedition was to perform Ivo could feel Bhelen's eyes on him. This was going to be a problem, wasn't it?

And was it strange he was starting to feel a little jealous of that poor, murder-knifed scout?


End file.
